Captured
by its-amagicalplace
Summary: What began as a simple surveillance operation becomes much more complicated when Agent May disappears. Spoilers: This is set in an AU where Ward is not HYDRA.
1. Chapter 1

_She had been gone too long. _

Coulson started to realise something wasn't right about half an hour after the rest of the team returned to the BUS. He'd brushed his worries away at first, but as time went on he could sense something was wrong.

The team had all been out in the city, spread out in multiple locations watching various targets. Ward had gone with Skye, and Fitzsimmons had gone together. May had gone alone, saying she could handle it. He'd remained behind gathering more intelligence about the targets they were tracking, preparing a file to show them all once they had returned.

It hadn't meant to be a high-risk operation, just surveillance. The people they were following were members of HYDRA, but reportedly low-level; a few soldiers, a scientist, a computer expert. Nobody that warranted the team taking extra caution, so they had gone out with just a handgun each. It was supposed to have been an easy job, if ever there were one, which made him all the more concerned that she hadn't come back.

Ward and Skye had returned first, and Fitzsimmons had followed shortly afterwards. None of them claimed to have seen May since they had left earlier that afternoon.

She was always on time, she kept to schedule, and if things had changed plan, she would have contacted someone. No, something had definitely happened.

He tried calling her phone again, but it went straight through to voicemail without ringing. She wouldn't have turned it off during a mission.

The unease in his stomach was spreading. It had been an hour since she should have returned. He made a decision.

"Skye" he called.

A few moments later the Hacker came into his office, a look of concern clearly displayed on her face. He wasn't the only one to notice this was out of the ordinary.

"Have you heard from her?" she asked him.

"No, nothing." He swallowed. "I…I think something might have happened. It's switched off, but I want you to track her phone."

_If Coulson wants to track her phone, _Skye thought, _he must really be worried_.

"Should be simple, assuming it is just switched off" she replied, but then looked at him. "If it's been broken or the battery removed however, it is going to be much harder to locate."

Coulson sighed. "Well, let's hope it's the former."

Skye nodded in reply, and turned to leave the office. Just before she did however she looked back to see him fiddling nervously with his phone, as though he were willing it to ring any moment. "She'll be okay won't she?"

He glanced back up at her.

"I mean, it's May. If anything happens she'll just go all kick-ass and take down whoever it is…she's the Cavalry right?"

Coulson gave a sad smile. "She hates being called that."

Skye noticed he'd not answered the question properly, but she saw the pain and worry in his eyes, so just nodded again, walked out of the office, and headed off to search the system, leaving Coulson in his office alone.

_Where are you Melinda? _He thought to himself. _What's happened to you?_

* * *

_Please review and let me know what you think!  
_


	2. Chapter 2

"Not so tough now are we, Cavalry?"

A leering male voice was the first thing May noticed as she drifted into consciousness. That, followed by a dull aching feeling in her stomach, as though she'd been kicked or punched there multiple times.

Which she had.

She also had a strong metallic taste in her mouth, which she quickly recognised as blood, and she could feel a hot wetness on her right cheek, coupled with a burning pain, suggesting she was currently bleeding from some sort of injury there too.

Which she was.

She forced herself to open her eyes through the haze of concussion, and looked around her.

She was tied or chained to some kind of chair, by her ankles, wrists and stomach. Through blurred vision, she could tell that she was in some kind of warehouse. There was nothing else really in there however, except a few crates and chains on the far side. The large doors at the other end of the room were closed (_probably locked too _she thought), and there were only a few windows high up. Through them streamed the remnants of afternoon sunlight; it was still light out, meaning it was most likely the same day.

Four men were stood around, including the target she had been monitoring. All appeared to be soldiers based on their attire – camouflage gear, handguns, shaved heads – and they were watching her like she was a prize they'd won in a game.

She felt sick.

_What had Coulson said? A surveillance, low-risk operation? _Something told her that their research had missed something. Something big. If they were just following low-risk and low-level targets, why was she here. Why had she been kidnapped so forcefully? Who were these men really?

Earlier that day, she'd been assigned to follow a man they believed to be a HYDRA soldier. So that point had been spot on. However, as she had monitored him, he had been acting erratically, suspicious, like he knew he was being followed and was trying to lose her. He'd left the café he had been in, and had moved across the street to another. And then he had left again, and began walking the streets, seemingly in no particular direction. It had sparked her interest, so she'd followed him at a safe distance. She'd tailed plenty of suspects before, and she knew how to keep out of sight, keep back, and act naturally. He hadn't seen her, she knew that.

But as she had rounded an alleyway, he had disappeared. She didn't like it – he was acting as though he knew what was going on, but he couldn't have done. Not unless he'd been tipped off. She wondered if there was something about him their research hadn't picked up. She'd reached into her pocket for her phone so she could call Phil, when before she knew what was happening, a group of men had jumped out of the shadows and grabbed her. She'd walked right into a trap.

May was strong, and an exceptionally good fighter, but against multiple men with the element of surprise and a large supply of muscle power, she had quickly been overpowered. They had physically beat her, covered her mouth, and bundled her into the back of a van within a couple of seconds. Just like in one of those spy-movies Skye was always watching.

She'd drifted in and out of consciousness as they drove away, and the next thing she was aware of she was waking up here.

"The famous cavalry, one of the most feared agents in the whole of S.H.I.E.L.D… I've been looking forward to this moment."

She broke away from her train of thought and her eyes snapped to the man doing the talking. This man hadn't been the target she'd followed - he was further back - but he looked like the leader of this little group. Tall, muscular, and smirking, he had tattoos up both arms and a gun strapped into his waistband. She silently thanked her lucky stars that they hadn't used firearms on her.

Yet.

She forced herself to look into his pale grey eyes, and with a jolt, realised that they had met before.

Her blood ran cold.

* * *

_(Sorry it took so long to update, I sort of lost motivation for writing it. Hope people enjoy! As usual I don't own Marvel or AOS or the characters etc.)_


	3. Chapter 3

Skye walked from Coulson's office towards the lounge area thinking about May. That morning, they'd done some tai-chi together, just the two of them, which was something she really enjoyed. Her and May, whilst they often disagreed over certain things, had grown closer over the previous months, and when May had agreed to let Skye join her early morning routines, she'd smiled, and knew that she had finally been accepted onto the team.

Following that, they had all been briefed on their targets, before the team had split up, each heading in a different direction in the city. May had been the only one to go alone, and Skye couldn't help but feel guilty; if she had gone with her instead of Ward, or if they had taken the soldier instead of the computer expert, then maybe _this_ wouldn't be happening. Whatever _this_ was. In fairness, they didn't even know if she was in trouble.

But Skye had a bad feeling about it.

She'd known as soon as Coulson had called her into his office minutes ago that something wasn't quite right. It was unlike May to go off grid.

This happening was ironically typical though; everything had been going too smoothly recently, and something had been bound to go wrong sooner or later.

She sighed as she opened her laptop up and connected it to the BUS's internal computer. Sure, she could track the phone using the BUS's own software, but that would take time, and she had her own advanced program left over from when she worked for the Rising Tide that could do the job twice as fast; she was pretty sure that in these circumstances Coulson wouldn't mind her breaking the rules slightly.

The screen flickered to life, and she tapped her fingers impatiently as she waited for it to load. May was never unreliable. Ever. Sure, Skye had only known her a few months, but in that time she had quickly come to see her as someone she could depend on. Someone who got the job done, no questions, and did it well. But not making contact, especially after this length of time? No, she had to agree with Coulson – something wasn't right.

A small *bleep* indicated her laptop was ready, so she punched in May's phone number and hit enter. The system immediately began to track it, bouncing signals off every telephone pole, radio signal and network it could access.

"She's still not back?" asked a voice from behind her.

Jemma walked into the room with a concerned expression on her face. Skye shook her head at her and nodded towards the screen in front of them.

"No. Coulson has got me tracking her phone." She paused, before continuing. "He seems worried, which, you know, is not like him is it?"

Jemma chewed her lip as she listened to Skye, and watched the screen, shaking her head slightly.

"No. It's not. But then again, it also isn't like Agent May to go off radar…so to speak."

Jemma and Fitz had spent the morning tailing a man they believed to be involved in some form of scientific experimentation for HYDRA. But all he had done was buy a newspaper and visit the gym. The two had followed him regardless, but had gained pretty much nothing of importance. Neither had Skye and Ward, which begged the question, that if something had gone wrong, then who the hell had it been who May was tailing, and what had their research missed?

They went quiet again, and watched as the screen in front of them flickered with various numbers and locations, before it suddenly settled on multiple various co-ordinates in the city.

"Got it!" Skye called, and Coulson immediately appeared out of his office, as though he had been waiting there for her to announce something.

"Where?"

"It's in the city still, where we were surveying earlier…it's switched off, but the battery must still be inside it, because I've managed to correlate a signal at the location against various other devices, and it responded."

"Okay" Coulson replied, walking around the table to join the two girls. "Any specific location? Or just an area?"

Skye observed the map on the screen closely. "It's just a general area I think; these co-ordinates give the locations where the signal was last traced, so, it could be anywhere from here –" she pointed at a location on the map, "- at the market place, to here –" she pointed again, "in China town…that's where the nearest locator beacons picked up her signal last anyway."

"That's the area she was following Jefferson in" Coulson said absentmindedly. "Skye…bring your laptop with you, I want you to run another background check on him during the journey, dig harder, see if there is anything we've missed."

Skye nodded in response, and set about unplugging it.

"Jemma," Coulson continued, turning to the biochemist. "Find Fitz and bring any files or data you can find on this guy with you so we can run over it again in the car."

"Is there any way of manually turning her phone on from here?" Jemma asked. "So we can see if she is at least there too?"

Skye shook her head, with a frustrated look on her face.

"Not quickly, our tech isn't that advanced, it would take ages and it might not even be possible… but I bet Stark could do it."

"We don't have time to get Stark" replied Coulson through gritted teeth. "We'll just have to go out there and try and find her ourselves. Get the rest of the team together and meet in the cargo hold in five minutes."

With that, Coulson turned away and headed back to his office.

"You're right Skye, he is worried" Jemma said quietly once he had left. "The slight tremble in his voice is noticeable despite how he tries to hide it, and I can tell by the way he kept fidgeting with his hands that he is trying to distract himself."

Skye closed the lid of her laptop and unplugged it, bringing it with her as the two headed down to the cargo hold to get the others.

"I know."

* * *

_I found some motivation! Let me know what you think!_

_As usual, I don't own AOS or Marvel etc._


End file.
